Japanese navy Red machine

This is the Japanese Navy's Red machine, that country's own version of a cipher machine. "Like its diplomatic counterpart, the [Japanese] navy machine separated the 'alphabet' into two subgroups," according to the museum. "However, instead of using the Romanized spellings, it has a katakana keyboard. It is believed that due to the difficulty in using and maintaining the machine, the Navy Red saw little use by the Japanese fleet."

Click here to read the related story on the National Cryptologic Museum, and click here to check out the entire Road Trip 2010 package.

August 6, 2010 4:00 AM PDT

Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

| Caption by: Daniel Terdiman